American Black Bear

 






American Black Bear in the Wildlife Management Area (not near trails)

Did you know that 90% of a bear's diet is plant material?  In the fall, hazelnuts, acorns, and wild apples are consumed in abundance in an attempt to fatten up.  This caloric intake sustains them through winter when they pull from fat stores and lose 15-25% of their body weight.  Females gaining enough weight in the fall is crucial for the health of young cubs who will be born and nursed during late winter within the den.

Email Post

Comments

Anonymous said…
By planting native, nutritious raspberries, highbush blueberry, chestnut oak, bear oak, walnuts, mast trees, fruit trees, and other shrubs for wildlife, people can help the bears find healthy, natural food before and after winter. Leaving your carved pumpkins filled with their seeds, away from houses, ensures that bears will learn to enjoy them in the woods. Encouraging your local bears to find lots of healthy food deep in the woods, and to den away from houses, keeps them safe from cars and suburbia. When encountering a black bear on a trail it is polite to walk to the side to provide space for the bear to pass, in search of insects and plant food. Statistically, a black bear encounter is millions of times safer than being near any automobile.
October 20, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Anonymous said…
There’s a video of a gentle black bear, Mr.Doorman, opening and closing a door, as a lady gently asks him to do so. The black bears have been politely communicating, napping, and introducing their cubs to her for decades. Human compassion with the black bears becomes mutual. It would be wonderful if Westmoreland Sanctuary would please organize compassionate people around northern Westchester to welcome local, black bears to their land where they will treat the black bears in a humane, compassionate way so that the bears will not wander into properties where over-reactive people will call the DEC to have safe bears chased and shot. Education about the body language and vocalizations of black bears would be very helpful in helping over-reactive people calm down when a peaceful black bear carries a pumpkin, eats the seeds, and enjoys a nap, or searches for nuts under hickory trees. Statistically, people are more likely to end up with lacerations from running away and falling than from any bear.
October 24, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Post a Comment